Just curious about the 15% number and how it matched the wiki perfectly. I'm sure you've read more then your fair share.

Correct. And as you know, they were never actually defeated, but instead they just became insignificant as fewer and fewer people supported their activities. That is how you defeat extremism.

And as I stated above, when the government tried to fight against them back in the 1870s, it only resulted in making them more popular among the people.

We are seeing the same exact thing happen with Al-Queda, and Israel has seen the same exact thing happen with Hamas over the past 10 years.

Using military means to fight against extremists is like putting gasoline on a fire. It helps them to become more popular and grows their support base. For every extremist that you kill, you help to recruit 10 more.

I'm glad you clarified....:iagree:

But nontheless still powerful.

now the poor klu klux man see that we're all brothers
not because we are the same because we lack the same color

now that's green, now that's mean
can't burn his cross cause he cant afford the gasoline

now if a muslim woman strapped with a bomb on a bus
with the seconds running give you the jitters?

just imagine a American-based christian orginization planning to poison water supplies to bring the second-coming quicker

they aint livin properly
break em off a little democracy

turn their whole culture to a mockery
give em coca-cola for their property

give em gum, give em guns, get em young, giv em fun
if they aint givin it up, then they aint gettin none

and dont giv em all naw ,man, just give em some its the paper, then these cops must be al-qaeda

-Lupe Fiasco "American Terrorist"-

If you search around the internet you will find that number in many sources of information on the KKK. It is pretty much accepted that the KKK membership at its peak was around 4 million which was about 15% of the white male population at the time.

Eric..besides education..(because I don't think that will work effectively enough) What would you propose?

First thing is to get our troops out of there and stop construction on these perminant bases. Osama bin Laden for years kept saying that once the United States military came to the Middle East they would never leave. By building perminant bases there, we are proving him right, and it helps build his credibility. There is no way we can defeat Al-Queda if the general population sees Al-Queda's leader as credible.

Second would be to pump money into Iraq, not in the form of contracts for big American companies who hire cheap labor from the Far East, but in a way that not only rebuilds Iraq but gives jobs to Iraqis. There also needs to be some kind of assistance programs to help the poor and unemployed, and that too should be funded by the US. And if we were to do that, I'm sure many other countries would contribute as well. There needs to be a huge increase in the standard of living to bring things back to the way they were prior to the Gulf War.

And lastly, whatever happens politically, we need to support what the people want. If the most important issue is really about decreasing the influence of terrorism in the Middle East, then it cannot also be about oil and economics for foreign corporations in Iraq. Unfortunately those two issues run head-on and cannot both be accomplished side-by-side. What is required to accomplish one of those two goals will make the other impossible to accomplish.

So take your pick: either have political influence in Iraq and have foreign oil corporations controlling Iraqi oil, or have an effective strategy in fighting against terrorism. But both cannot be accomplished.